Black spring

Fidel Castro: The Tyrant Exits but the Damage Remains / Jeovany Jimenez Vega Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 29 November 2016 — The dictator Fidel Castro died last Friday at the age of 90. The extensive news coverage was to be expected. After all, he was both the object of the most romantic, idealized love and the […] Continue reading →

Laritza Diversent, Devastated by the Police Operation Against Cubalex / Iván García Ivan Garcia, 28 September 2016 — After passing the crossing of La Palma, two kilometers from the old bus stop of Mantilla, El Calvario is found nestled, a district of one-story houses, roads without asphalt and a multitude of dogs without owners. At […] Continue reading →

Cuba: From the Black Spring to a Rolling Stones Concert / Iván García Posted on March 18, 2016 Iván García, 16 March 2106 — Around 12 midnight on Tuesday, 18 March 2003, I was en route to my apartment in the La Víbora neighborhood when, from the balcony, some incomprehensible signs coming from my mother […] Continue reading →

Opening for Business A former Marielito positions himself as an entrepreneur in the new Cuba. BY JON LEE ANDERSON One night not long ago, in a new restaurant in Havana called VIPs, the owner, a white-haired Catalan named Jordi, was speculating about what life might be like in Cuba after a reconciliation with the United […] Continue reading →

The Ladies in White Should Change Their Political Profile / Ivan Garcia Posted on March 20, 2015 Ivan Garcia, 11 March 2015 — During the hot summer of 2013 I remember Blanca Reyes, wife of the poet and journalist Raul Rivero, writing letters to the pope in the Vatican, to the Mothers of the Plaza […] Continue reading →

Cuba and the United States: Regret the past or build the future? JORGE CALAFORRA, Warsaw | Diciembre 22, 2014 On 17 December 2014 at 12:01 Washington DC time, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, announced the United States’ new policy toward Cuba. It should be recalled that the president of the United States […] Continue reading →

THE TRANSITION THAT IS ABOUT NOT TO COME / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Posted on August 27, 2014 THE TRANSITION THAT IS ABOUT NOT TO COME The power of Castro’s dictatorship couldn’t rely only in the annihilation of all kind of opposition, despite the fact that, since January 1959, its governability depended on fear (out […] Continue reading →

First Report of the Advisory Group / Cuban Civil Society Advisory Group Posted on October 26, 2013 A brief summary of topics that describe the situation of Cuba in late 2013 could be summed up in two words: reform and repression. The reforms have been directed mostly in the right direction, but in a superficial […] Continue reading →

Posted on Monday, 09.23.13 Espinosa Chepe, Cuban dissident economist, dies BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ ASSOCIATED PRESS HAVANA — Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a high-level Cuban economist and diplomat who broke with Fidel Castro’s government in the 1990s and was imprisoned for dissident activities, died in Spain Monday. He was 72 and had been hospitalized for a liver […] Continue reading →

Jorge Olivera: The History of the Cuban Dissidence is Long / Ivan Garcia Posted on April 12, 2013 For someone from Havana, the best thing is to walk the streets in spring. These March days, Jorge Olivera Castillo, 52, poet and journalist, is delighted by the green of the trees, the salty aroma, and the [...] Continue reading →

Quarterly Updates: Cuba Latest Update: 31 March 2012 The Cuban government announced the release of around 2,900 prisoners in the framework of preparations for the Pope's visit in late March. Most of those freed had completed over half of their sentences and only a handful were considered by local human rights organisations to be political [...] Continue reading →

Cuba's ShameBy Jacob MchangamaMarch 12, 2012 5:00 A.M. 'He who loses his honor loses everything." So states one of the propaganda posters, featuring quotations from Fidel Castro, that are ubiquitous in Cuba. How ironic, then, that Castro's policies are directly responsible for the daily humiliations suffered by the Cuban people, the supposed beneficiaries of Cuban [...] Continue reading →